Bai Lian's green eyes widened. "What?"
"They did nothing," Madam Yueying said. Her coral lips, swollen, curved into a smile. The smile was wrong. The warmth was there but the foundation, the person behind it, was altered. "I had to bear the punishment of what my son did. So I am doing it."
Bai Lian's hands, on the headmistress's face, trembled. "What? What are you talking about? Punishment? What punishment? Your son? Lau? What does Lau have to do with..."
"The forbidden technique," Madam Yueying said. Her dark eyes, wet, were steady. The corrupted logic, the broken reasoning, the mental framework that justified her degradation, flowed from her lips. "My son used a forbidden technique. The Immortal found out. The Immortal punished me. I am bearing the punishment. To save my son. My body for his life. It is a fair trade. A mother's duty."
Bai Lian's green eyes, wide, streamed. Her hands, on the headmistress's face, shook. Her body, the slender frame, trembled.
